I have a Sharp XV-Z12000 projector. I was watching TV and the lamp exploded with a loud bang. I then saw "smoke" billowing up under my recessed lighting. Consulting the owners manual, it stated that the projector would exhaust the mercury gas contained into the room and that if exposed I should consuldt a doctor. I am very concerned about the health hazards since both me and my son were exposed to the gas.

Has anyone else had this experience, or does anyone know the true extent of the danger?

I have a Sharp XV-Z12000 projector. I was watching TV and the lamp exploded with a loud bang. I then saw "smoke" billowing up under my recessed lighting. Consulting the owners manual, it stated that the projector would exhaust the mercury gas contained into the room and that if exposed I should consuldt a doctor. I am very concerned about the health hazards since both me and my son were exposed to the gas.

Has anyone else had this experience, or does anyone know the true extent of the danger?

I wouldn't worry... those are CYA words the manufacturer puts in the manual. I doubt the amount of mercury could do any harm unless you subject yourself to exploding mercury lamps day after day for months.

Did you have a similar experience? I have been researching Mercury exposure from broken fluorescent lamps. A Wikipedia reference states "Fluorescent lamps contain mercury vapor, and if broken, they can contaminate the surrounding environment and poison its inhabitants." Although a different type of lamp, the same vapor. I take this kind of risk seriously, especially when I saw the exhaust of the projector billowing into the air!

After a few comments on exploding lamps, and the danger of Mercury vapour, Ive discovered that a normal CFL energy bulb has 5mg. This amount, if broken, appears to be easily dispersed in the air and after 1 hour no real danger should be present.
I cant seem to find any info on Mercury content in Projector Lamps, so any help would be greatly appreciated

The issue with mercury is that it is bioaccumulative. Once it enters your system (which it does fairly easily), it never leaves. You don’t pass it and you don’t metabolize it (like most poisonous substances) - it just builds and builds. Fish, while not exposed to any large dose, contain high levels due to accumulation over time (you are not supposed to eat some fish caught around here due to high mercury levels). One isolated incident probably isn’t going to cause much of a problem, but continued exposure over time is another issue. It can cause neurological disorders (especially in children). Remember the “Mad Hatter”- some hat makers used to use mercury to help shape hats, with the continued exposure leading to mental issues.

zack,
mercury poisoning takes a long, long time. the term " mad as a hatter" is derived from the process of making felt hats. those workers were exposed to chronic(years to decades), high doses of mercury.
i personally wouldn't worry about it.

OK so I have a family friend. Her father was a chemist and happened to have a nice bottle of mercury around the house. When she was 10, she was looking around and picked up the bottle. She was fascinated by the liquid metal stuff so she took it out and played around with it.

Well for some time every once in a while she would play around with the Mercury and one day for some crazy reason she decided to put it in her mouth to see what it tasted like. Well due to the nature of the stuff, she accidentally swallowed it.

It was somewhere between a teaspoon to tablespoon of mercury (they think is was closer to a tablespoon).

Well anyway she felt stupid about it so she didn't tell anyone. In about a day or so she got really sick and ended up confessing that she consumed the mercury.

It was too late to pump her stomach at that point, but after some time she got better.

Anyway, she is about 55 years old now and has 5 kids. She has great health and is pretty smart. None of her kids seem to have any handicaps either. (although I wasn't so sure when they were about 12 or so).

I dont think there has ever really been any concern or proper awareness of it.
For me, a mercury lamp usually poses NO danger.Yet a projector lamp has such pressure and heat that by its very nature at the end of life/or fault they are very suseptible to cracking or breaking open.
I for one used projctor thinking they were just normal lights, until I realised that they do break, they do contain mercury, and it could be a danger never realised. Either that, or most people really dont care....

(I just recieved a response from Epson, stating that the lamp contains small amount of mercury that are perfectly safe as its such a low dose. It appears even they have no idea, so how on earth would the consumer)

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts...I appreciate you taking the time. I too found the article from Philips and found it to be the most relevant. My big issue now is with Sharp. They have the worst customer service in the world. I have been passed around to five different reps. Last Friday a mid level person listened to my case...said that he would talk to a vice president and get back to me either that day or on Monday (even thought it was a holiday). After hearing nothing, I called again on Wednesday and was told that someone else was supposed to call me back. After calling her for two days and leaving voice mails she has not even had the courtesy to call me back. I will never buy so much as a flashlight from Sharp again!

I have decided not too be too concerned. As the Philips article states, they claim the amount released from a projector bulb (0.01 - 0.03) falls well within the acceptable amount for people to be "Constantly working around (upto 0.025 is fine for everyday work, 8hrs a day 7 days a week) so an hours exposure should pose no real threat.
Also, the amount which PEL see's as being safe without complications is 0.1, which the amount in the projector falls well below. The thing that made me relax also, is I probably have more Mercury in my fillings, and at any stage a flouresent bulb (In TV's, coputers, energy lights) may break at anytime, it should be fine. I even recall having dropped a flouresent lamp and it shattering on my arm, so why should I be concerned now???

The bulb in my Panasonic blew out one day while I was watching TV. Scared the crap out of me. When I took down the projector it sounded like glass was all over inside which left me scared to remove the lamp cage thinking my projector was ruined. I was surprised to find out the lamp had a protective clear covering which kept everything inside the lamp cage but some power ( no idea what this was ) did make its way outside and onto the projector and me when I was cleaning up the mess. The lamp had less then 500 hours

Also, just think, standard power cables release chemicals which can pose threats (Google), mobile phones, even smoking, or driving a car, so seriously I dont believe anything to be overly concerned with Zac, Im sure you'll be fine

At this point, I don't think the mercury is as much of an issue as the stress I put myself though because I could get no relevant product information from Sharp. The company is an uncaring, unresponsive, and unprofessional, non-custumer service oriented organization! Thankfully, Philips has more respect for its customers...

As for now, you should stop worrying because if you're poisoned with mercury, you should have experienced a symptom already. Mercury is very toxic and can kill a man in a matter of minutes. I've known a kid who accidentally chewed an oral thermometer that contains mercury and he died after about 4 hours.

As the Philips article states, they claim the amount released from a projector bulb (0.01 - 0.03) falls well within the acceptable amount for people to be "Constantly working around (upto 0.025 is fine for everyday work, 8hrs a day 7 days a week) so an hours exposure should pose no real threat.

That's not really what I'm reading.

There's up to 30mg (0.03g) of mercury released from a bulb. A daily exposure of 0.025mg/m³ is supposedly acceptable.

My projector is in a small room with maybe 30m³. 30mg/30m³= 1mg/m³ and that would be 40x the acceptable level for daily exposure.

Also I don't like that I'm supposed to use a "mercury vacuum cleaner" to clean up the mess.